


Fickle Beasts

by frankenmouse



Category: Dishonored (Video Games)
Genre: Animal Attack, Dishonored 2, Gen, I mean, Kinda?, Legends, Meta, Other, Short One Shot, just in case, mild Dishonored 2 spoilers, stories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-24
Updated: 2017-01-24
Packaged: 2018-09-19 16:03:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9449351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frankenmouse/pseuds/frankenmouse
Summary: White animals, it was said, belonged to the Outsider.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So, there are quite a few bone charms and powers that mention white rats in the first Dishonored game. And Dishonored 2 added the Fickle Beasts charm, which affects white wolfhounds. There's gotta be SOMETHING going on there! Add to that the real world associations that many cultures have had with white animals and, well, you get this.

White animals, it was said, belonged to the Outsider. There were stories whispered of white rats leading people to shrines and madness, of great white whales that capsized ships, drowning scores of men. In some times and places, these creatures were treated with fear, awe, and reverence. In others, they were killed on sight, omens of ill fortune and ruin. 

The coming of the Abbey largely put an end to this, as it did so much else. Peasant superstition at best, perilously close to Outsider worship at worst.

And yet, among their own, white hounds were prized. For some, they were an explicit rejection of superstition, for others, evidence of the Abbey’s power over the Outsider. And for some, the fear in people’s eyes when they saw the white hounds was reason enough.

And if there were still stories, stories of white hounds suddenly turning on their handlers, biting the hand that held the lead (and more besides) well, these things did occasionally happen. Poor training, sickness, any number of reasons could explain it. And if sometimes the white hounds in these stories were more savage, more cunning than any hound had a right to be, well…

They were just stories.

**Author's Note:**

> Come yell about Dishonored with me at [my Tumblr](http://frankenmouse.tumblr.com/).


End file.
